NCAA Gamebreaker 99 (PS1)

Back with some more college sports action! I was looking forward to this one because I had never played a non-EA college football game and beyond that haven't played but a handful of PS1 sports games period. As Usual let me start with the positives: The camera work in this one was absolutely stellar. I love how dynamic it made everything feel with low angle shots walking up to the line and reverse perspective instant replays. It goes a long way on the presentation front to have little additions like that. Also super nostalgic to see some of the old 90s "Vols" logos plastered around the stadium, that really made me smile. It might also seem like a minor thing but I am always impressed when older games have gigantic rosters. I didnt scroll through all the teams but the case says there are over 100 actual NCAA teams which is above and beyond what I would expect from a PS1 era game. I vividly remember NCAA Football on SNES having less than 25 teams so having full conferences of division 1 and lower is something I really asppreciate. Unfortunately the pros kind of stop there. This game is a chore to control, especially if you are used to more modern football controls. Having R1/L1 be your dedicated lateral button anytime you are a ball carrier is a horrible decision. In some warmup games I would reflexively hit R1 to juke and just pitch the ball 10 yards behind me or worse straight to the defense for an accidental fumble return for a TD. I don't know what was going on with the commentary, for full disclosure I am playing a disc copy of the game in mint condition on a fat model ps2 so I don't think this is a hardware problem unless this game just really doesn't like the ps2. The voice lines were super choppy, and sometimes just outright wrong. The announcer would refer to either UT or FSU as Air Force randomly, it would struggle to say the score of the home team, lines would just cut abruptly. It really knocked some of my enjoyment down by being so unpolished I guess is the word I'm looking for. All in all, I didn't love it, but I wouldn't say I hated it either. Just a little rough around the edges, but so were a lot of PS1/N64 era titles. Give it a shot for yourself if you want to explore outside the realm of Electronic Arts for a little while. #ncaafootball #ps1 #cfb